This relates generally to graphics processing and, particularly, to the texture unit of a graphics processor.
A graphics processor is a dedicated processor that generally handles processing tasks associated with the display of images. A graphics processor may include a number of specialized function units, including a texture unit. A texture unit performs texture operations including texture decompression and anisotropic filtering.
A texture sampler is a special type of texture unit that optimizes texture filtering and performs texture filtering faster than a general purpose processor.